Hackers siphon off Rs 94 cr from Pune’s Cosmos Bank

Hackers siphon off Rs 94 cr from Pune’s Cosmos Bank

Pune, Aug 14: The banking sector was rattled again when hackers siphoned off a whopping Rs 94.42 crore from the Cosmos Cooperative Bank Ltd - the second oldest and second biggest cooperative bank in India–to foreign and domestic bank accounts, officials said on Tuesday. Shockingly, the Cosmos Bank admitted that it was “cyber-attacked twice, first on Saturday and again on Monday” - with ATM withdrawals taking place in at least 28 countries, according to an FIR lodged by a senior official with Chaturshringi Police Station.

The police complaint said the first attack took place on August 11 between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. and the second on August 13 around 11.30 a.m., affecting its headquarters on Ganeshkhind Road.

On Saturday, around Rs 78 crore was withdrawn through ATMs located in 28 countries through 12,000 Visa Card transactions, Kale added. These were transferred out of the country, including bank accounts in Hong Kong.

Another amount of Rs 2.50 crore from 2,849 transactions was transferred within India, details of which were being investigated by the police. The cyber attack came to light on Saturday when the bank noticed “unusual repeated transactions taking place through its Visa and Rupay Debit Card Payment System”, Kale said. As soon as these suspicious transactions were reported, the bank reacted by clamping a shutdown on its Visa and Rupay debit card payment systems pending investigation.

A police officer said that during those hours, some unknown persons hacked into the ATM Switch (servers) at the bank’s headquarters and acquired the sensitive data of its Visa and RuPay debit card customers. However, in a fresh attack on Monday (August 13), the hackers initiated SWIFT transactions and transferred Rs 13.92 crore to the accounts of a company, ALM Trading Ltd, with Hang Seng Bank, Hong Kong. The amounts were soon withdrawn from that bank. (IANS)

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com